New Intracoastal Drive Gets Signs

Lighthouse Point Magazine’s City Beat Reporter Marie Puleo. She can be emailed at puleo.marie@gmail.com

By Marie Puleo

The streets along the Intracoastal Waterway that the City recently renamed “Intracoastal Drive” now have signs that bear their new designation.

A total of 30 signs were installed at 15 intersections along NE 24th Street, NE 30th Avenue, NE 31st Avenue and NE 48th Street by Broward County in September.

Two Lighthouse Point residents were behind the proposal to rename the streets – Lighthouse Point-based realtor Kevin Kreutzfeld and former mayor Leo Bentz.

The idea originated with Kreutzfeld, who sells homes exclusively in excess of $1 million. During a conversation with Bentz, he noted that the most high-end and affluent neighborhoods around South Florida, and the country, have street names instead of numbered streets. He told Bentz, “You could be living on Intracoastal Drive instead of 31st Avenue.”

Bentz presented the idea to the City Commission in March, and three months later, a resolution was passed to rename the streets.

Kreutzfeld said Bentz was “the driving force of taking my idea and actually making it happen.”

The object was to enhance the prestige of the street and the neighborhood, and possibly help increase property values.

Kreutzfeld said residents who live on the newly named Intracoastal Drive were very supportive of the project and are pleased and excited with the outcome because they all benefit by it.

“There is far more appeal to living on a street with a name versus a numbered street,” he said.

Bentz, who pledged to raise the funds necessary to purchase and install the new street signs, has received offers from neighbors to help with the estimated $2,900 cost of the project.